Archdemon
by Celsius009
Summary: A tribute to the deadliest minion in the game. Congrats Archdemon: you scare me.


**The abilities learned/items given aren't made up. They really do master everything (well not Regal's stuff, but they do hit hard).**

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The group settled in a dense forest for the night, far away from the accusing gazes of city populations and in the quiet wilderness. Ever since Emil had collected the cores the monsters had become rather subdued in the wild and it was rare they had to fend off an unprovoked attack.

"I want to thank you guys for doing this." Lloyd spoke to the group sitting around a campfire eating the meal Emil had prepared. "I know it isn't easy living in the wilderness when warm beds are a short flight away."

"We just got the group back together, you can't expect us to go sleep at an inn while you hang around outside all night." Genis said, turning away from the curiously shaped fruit Emil had carved to look at him.

"We haven't seen you in so long…" Colette said, looking away from her dish and into the fire before them. "We've missed you Lloyd."

Lloyd grinned and set the plate on his lap, bringing his arms around his two childhood friends on either side of him.

"Yeah, but I gotta say after getting the Rheairds back I was kinda hoping I'd never have to sleep outside again. But sure, I guess friendship counts or something…" Zelos said dismissively, eyeing the cloudy sky. "It's a good thing you're worth a thunderstorm, Lloyd. Or at least it's a good thing majority rules…" he added quietly.

"What he _means_," Sheena said, reaching over and punching Zelos in the ribs while he was stretching, "Is that where you go, we go Lloyd." She said, returning his appreciative grin.

"It's so sweet you all care for each other so much!" Marta chimed in, eyes glistening as she clasped her hands together.

"Sure is." Zelos commented. Nodding towards the monsters sitting passively as Emil fed them a short distance behind Marta, he asked "Where do those sleep?"

"Oh," Marta said, turning towards them, then to the sky. "Normally they stay outside, but it's going to rain tonight… We should bring them in."

This didn't seem a problem given they had ten people and four monsters; each of the five tents housing three comfortably.

Zelos' eyes narrowed as he focused on one. "What _is_ that?" he asked quietly, averting his eyes but head-gesturing towards the four monsters.

"What's what?" Marta asked, looking over her shoulder until Zelos called her back quickly.

"Shh! Don't _look_!" he hissed, looking at her like she was crazy. He casually raised his head to peek over her shoulder and then ducked it down again. He pointed, keeping his hand low. "_That_."

This time Marta knew what he was referring to. She glanced over her shoulder where Emil had finished feeding the three rabbit monsters and moved back to join them.

"Why didn't you give him food?" Zelos whispered to Emil, eyes wild as if worried it might try eating someone if not properly fed.

Emil looked back to see what he was talking about and then turned to him, shrugging. "He doesn't eat…" he turned to Marta, "She?" He turned back to Zelos. "Whatever it is, _it_ doesn't eat. It just kinda... Does that."

Zelos looked back at the fourth monster, floating a few feet off the ground a little away from the other three. It was tall, broad shouldered and dark red in some areas, entirely black in others. It floated there, shoulders hunched and brooding, hellfire red eyes staring unblinkingly at the campfire. Zelos suppressed a shudder as its gaze turned to him, ducking back down behind Marta. "Where did you find it?"

She shrugged, seemingly unbothered. "One of the many captured by Emil's raw charm." She said, swooning in place watching the boy eat. Emil responded by focusing intently on his food.

"Does it have a name?" Zelos pressed on, keeping his eyes on the monster, not wanting to break sight for fear of it not being there when he looked back. But Marta wasn't listening, now engaging in quiet whispers with Emil that made the boy's cheeks blush.

"I just call her Luci." Genis answered, popping in the conversation when he realized what they were talking about. "She's really good at casting magic. I've already taught her most of my advanced spells. And it learned Raine's without her even teaching it!" The boy's chest swelled proudly and he waved at the monster still glowering at Zelos. It didn't wave back.

"Yes, it is quite an avid student. Just by watching me fight no more than four or five times it has already mastered every move I know. Quite impressive, if I may flatter myself…" Regal added, ignoring the fact that the monster had learned in a matter of hours what'd taken him nearly his entire life to master.

"Oh, are you talking about Stan?" Colette asked, moving closer to sit with Zelos. "He's so nice! Just yesterday he followed me the whole day! I think he was waiting for something. But then just before bed I showed him my Chakrams and wings and he went away. I hope I didn't offend him or anything…" she looked down at her hands worriedly.

"Uh…" Zelos muttered, tearing his eyes from the floating Archdemon to look at Colette. "Colette I don't think–"

"There! That should do it." Lloyd exclaimed happily. Everyone looked at him as he offered something to Emil. "That's for Abba there. I synthesized a bunch of materials you guys weren't using and made him something that should enhance his abilities in battle. I call it the Lord of Chaos." He handed him the small statue icon.

"I have something for him as well." Presea said, rifling through her pack and pulling out a similar small statue. "I found it when we last traveled to the other realm. But I think only beings from there have use for it. The writing on the side says 'Blood of Innocents.'" She rose and handed the paired statue to Emil.

Emil moved to hand the items to the Archdemon who took them without breaking gaze with Zelos.

"Am I seriously the only one who thinks it's a horrible, horrible idea to have this thing traveling with – What's he doing?" Zelos asked Marta, watching the demon whose shoulders shook while it threw its head back as if in laughter, but no sound came out.

"He just does that, dunno why. We think maybe he just hears things others can't." Marta replied casually, watching the demon for a moment before clearing off her plate in the fire. "That was a great meal Emil."

"Yes, you certainly know your cooking." Regal said, bowing his head to Emil in respect. "But I think it is time we retired for the evening."

"Rain is coming and we need to be awake early to travel tomorrow." Raine added, picking up her bags and moving them to the tents already set up. "Is everyone satisfied with the sleeping arrangements?"

Zelos looked around in surprise as a common voice of agreement rose amongst the others. "Whoa when did this happen? I didn't get to pick!"

"You were busy watching that monster the whole time we already chose our sleeping buddies. Because of the tents there'd already be one person out anyway, and you were so interested in it we figured you wouldn't mind." Sheena said, shrugging as she brought her and Presea's bags over beside Raine's.

"Wait, hold up, everyone got to pick theirs? Who am I…" but Zelos already knew the answer before he asked it. Thinking quickly he looked back at the smaller, cuter, furrier, much less malevolent looking rabbits frolicking towards one of the tents. "What about them? Can one of them–?"

"Sorry Zelos, they don't like being separated. We took them in as a pack." Marta interrupted him. "I couldn't bear it if we lost one of them."

"'Lost'?!" Zelos asked quickly, looking in any direction save one.

"Well yeah. Everyone knows he doesn't get along well with others." Marta gestured towards the floating demon.

"And so you're putting _me_ in _his_ tent? With the bloody master-of-combat chaos lord-who-hears-voices? What about losing me? Could you bear that?" Zelos asked, beginning to panic at the thought of the sharing a tent with the thing. "What if he murders me in his sleep or something?!"

"Oh don't worry about that." Marta giggled, waving a hand at him while unpacking her sleeping bag and rolling it into her tent. "He doesn't sleep."

Zelos stood speechless as she made her way into the tent she was sharing with Colette and Emil. He saw Lloyd and practically jumped on him. "H-Hey bud! Just like old times, right? How about we try fitting just one more in the manly tent, eh?"

"That does sound like fun…" Lloyd said reminiscently, then shook his head. "But have you seen these tents? With Regal there's barely any room for Genis, let alone me. I just don't think…" he trailed off apologetically, then clasped a hand to Zelos' shoulder and bade him goodnight.

All was quiet now as Zelos slowly turned. He jumped when he came realized he was facing a torso. The demon glared down at him. He wished those eyes would blink…

"Alright big guy looks like you get to gaze upon my beauty for tonight. Just don't get used to it alright? It's only for _one_ night!" he called loudly, walking to his tent and ignoring the snickers and giggles from the others.

He entered, then turned to see if the thing was coming. To his surprise he saw the area around the campfire to be clear. He turned back and nearly fell backwards when he came face to face with the demon. Seemingly unable to break posture or touch the ground, the demon stretched to its full height, causing the tent to rise from its stakes and drape over it like a poorly designed ghost costume.

Zelos waited for it to remove the tent but it seemed content to float there, literally taking up the entire tent space as the first few drops of water began to hit the ground. Zelos sighed as the fire began to hiss, hesitantly crawling near the floating tent and curling up with a blanket there.

He closed his eyes and opened them every few seconds for the next few hours, but the monster never moved from its position. He supposed it was better than having it stare at him while he slept.

At least now he could be sure he would in fact be waking up in the morning.

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**There's a fine line in life to tread between what's practical and what's socially-accepted.**

**Archdemons. Useful? Like nothing else. Would I sleep near or be alone with one in any circumstance? Not if I had any interest in waking up.**


End file.
